Alleged intruder who picked the wrong home taken down by MMA fighter until police arrive
"I've been doing jiu-jitsu for about 13 years," the homeowner's son said.
Admit it. There have been times in your life when you've dreamed of becoming an expert fighter and raining down sweet superhero justice on the wrongdoers of the world.
Sergio Hernandez Jr., a professional mixed martial arts fighter, recently got the chance to do so when he caught a man who had allegedly just broken into his father's San Diego house.
But instead of the kind of beat-down seen in countless kung fu flicks, Hernandez just held the man down in a "triangle choke" Monday and calmly sat on him with his legs locked around the man's head until police arrived and arrested him, he said.
"I was angry and I was upset but I wanted to make sure that I didn't harm him to get some sort of revenge or satisfaction out of this," he said.
"When I see people post videos of people getting punched or street fights, it always bothers me that people celebrate violence so much."
The San Diego Police Department did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
The incident occurred when Hernandez and his father, Sergio Hernandez Sr., were out for an errand. When they came home, Hernandez saw a man standing in the backyard.
The man told him he was trying to hide from a dog, Hernandez said, so he let him go.
But then he found the screen window of his father's bedroom ripped open and the room a complete mess, he said. Suspecting the man was the intruder, Hernandez chased him, brought him back and kept him on the ground for the five minutes it took the police to get to his house, he said.
"I've been doing jiu-jitsu for about 13 years," he said of the Brazilian martial art.
"I could have broken his arm easily but I don't like to see people get hurt. I was going to put him to sleep but I wanted to keep talking to him to figure out why he chose our house.
“I felt bad for him but to violate someone's property like that is very dangerous. I think it would have been wrong of us to let him go because maybe he could've put some else's life in danger in the future."
Such a combination of kindness and fearsome combat skills seems to run in the family. His father is a retired school counselor and boxing coach who decided to call the police only after he was sure the suspected was not a minor.
"When I was younger,” Hernandez Jr. told ABC News, “someone stole my bike and the person that stole it was a minor and so my dad didn't want to get the cops involved so he let that individual go after he talked to the parents.”
Despite handing off the suspected intruder to authorities, the father still seemed to have compassion for him.
"I would like to invite him to a boxing gym,” he told ABC San Diego affiliate KGTV. “He's young. There is still time to save him, to guide him in the right direction.”
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